out of depth
by former-burning-example
Summary: Elizabeth and Eleanor escape, together. Elizabeth/Eleanor. Complete.
1. Welcome to Rapture

A/N: This is my first try writing for Bioshock, so I'll most likely have a few factual errors seeing as the games exist in a pretty complicated universe... or universes.

This is sort of a retelling of the events of Bioshock 2, interwoven with scenes in Elizabeth's tower in Columbia. It'll be three chapters plus a short epilogue/conclusion. This is Elizabeth/Eleanor, a rarepair, apparently.

..

.

 **Present Time**

 **Columbia**

.

The world ripped apart at her hands, wavering and bending with instability. Elizabeth squared her shoulders and stepped through. She did not look back. There was nothing left for her there.

..

.

 **Eighteen Months Ago**

 **Rapture**

.

Eleanor's shoulder blades pushed into the wooden headboard as Mother took a seat at the edge of her bed.

"You are so much more than you know, Eleanor." Mother always spoke so drastically, as though even the smallest things meant the difference between how you live or die. But this? Eleanor knew better. "You are not just mine, but the daughter of the people. You are the vessel of the future."

Eleanor's dark hair fell over her face as she glared down at her hands folded in her lap. She had heard the speeches, the sermons over the intercom. None of this was new to her, but deep down, underneath her anger, Eleanor was afraid. It was, after all, an _experiment_. Eleanor was not blind to what Mother had been attempting with Mr. Alexander. His body could not handle the ADAM injections. He'd gone mad. And that Eleanor herself could survive where he hadn't? Well, that was simply a theory at best. But what choice did she have?

Mother left soon after that, the locking mechanism whirling home with a loud _thunk_ behind her.

..

Eleanor stood at the thick glass window looking out onto Rapture. Surely, not the one Mr. Ryan had dreamed of, " _No Gods or Kings, Only Men."_ No, it was now the Rapture of Lamb. It was Mother's dream.

She pressed her hands to the glass, squinting into the dark water, wondering how there was more out there than this splicer-infested underwater hell.

Eleanor stepped away from the glass.

The experiments would begin tomorrow.

..

.

 **Columbia**

.

Elizabeth could spend her days reading or singing or pulling objects from other worlds entirely. Most of what she found didn't seem to do much of anything once she brought them through. The few things she did recognize still seemed strange and foreign, made from materials she didn't quite recognize.

But still, if she could find enough pieces of the outside world, maybe she could find a way to forget for a moment that she may never step foot outside the tower.

.

Elizabeth hummed as she made her way to her library. As bristling as it was to be so confined, she was grateful for the books. Songbird seemed to bring new ones every few weeks. She wanted, more than most things, to ask him where they came from, but their bond did not stretch as far as words.

As she rounded the end of the staircase, a ripple in the air stopped her. She tilted her head a little and blinked a few times, thinking it must have just been her mind. Yes, she opened tears nearly every day, but never in the library. There was too much a risk she might lose control and lose the room, all her books, her stories, her journals.

But this tear was just _there_. Without precedent.

Elizabeth moved closer, with caution, of course- albeit _very_ little. She glanced around, making sure Songbird was nowhere to be found, then she pulled at the edge just enough to peer through.

..

.

 **Rapture**

.

Eleanor resisted, shrugging the splicer's hands off of her shoulders. She could feel the ADAM growing, alive inside of her like a cancer. The procedures had just begun recently, yet Eleanor felt half the person she used to be. Surely, this was not what Mother had in mind. Her daughter was not a beacon of hope for the altruistic future of Rapture, she was just diluted and angry and weak. Father would have _never_ let this happen.

The splicer, shuddering a little each time they stopped to turn a corner, shoved her forward. It was clear he had gone quite a while without ADAM. Eleanor was willing to wager a guess that any and all ADAM was to be presented to Mother. She could only imagine what Mother did to those who chose not to give to the cause and future of the Family.

She could resist all she wanted. It was clear Mother was going to get what she wanted in the end. Eleanor could not win this, not on her own. Not without help.

It was then when she began to search for Father.

..

The new Little Sisters were easy enough to befriend. After all, Eleanor had been, for a time, in their shoes. Crawling through vents, riding on the shoulders of a Big Daddy, and following the scent of ADAM were not things easily forgotten, no matter how cheery things seemed through her childish eyes.

Convincing the lot of seven-year-olds to recover pieces of Father's genetic sequence was another feat altogether. It took months. But as time wore on, with the generous help of Brigid Tenenbaum, the Little Sisters managed to find and resurrect, Father, Subject Delta, but neither Tenenbaum nor Eleanor could have possibly anticipated the repercussions of bringing such a creature, so long disconnected from everything, back to life.

..

.

 **Columbia**

.

Elizabeth moved closer, with caution, of course- albeit _very_ little. She glanced around, making sure Songbird was nowhere to be found, then she pulled at the edge just enough to peer through.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but after the static and distortion faded, she gasped, not in fear, but in _awe._

She could see _children_. Little girls, maybe a dozen of them giggling and whispering around some kind of glowing bluish-green glass column. She couldn't see much else, but there was the faint, yet persistent sound of water dripping and a strange echo as if this… _sight_ was in some kind of tunnel.

Suddenly, the glass column began to brighten. The little girls started laughing and cheering louder.

"Mr. Bubbles is waking up!"

Elizabeth beamed. While strange to her, it was certainly something to see. This must have been a very special tear.

Something big shifted in the column, a bright green light slowly clicked on, a concentration of lit circles.

"Mr. Bubbles! Don't be a slowpoke! Angels don't wait for slowpokes."

The green light seemed to shift down towards the girls, who at this point seemed to be climbing over each other to be the first to the tank. But just as one of the girls placed her hand on the glass, the lights flashed red. A loud roar-like noise shook the ground, and the column exploded, water and glass shooting everywhere.

The little girls screamed and scattered, running from… that _thing_ , that robot as it charged after them ruthlessly.

"No, Daddy! Mr. Bubbles, stop!"

The drill on its arm started to whirl. Elizabeth felt her blood boiling, roaring in her veins like, _do something. Save them!_

Elizabeth ripped the tear open with all her strength and stepped inside.

..

.

 **Rapture: Eleanor**

.

It didn't take long for Mother to catch onto her plan. Eleanor had expected as much, she just didn't think such a transgression would cause Mother to very suddenly accelerate her treatments.

It was now very rare she had an unwatched moment to contact the Little Sisters or Father. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate over the chaos of the ADAM infesting her.

"Father? Can you hear me?"

Nothing followed. She tried the Little Sisters instead, thinking they hadn't yet finished reviving Father.

"Are you almost finished?"

The response shot Eleanor to her feet.

"Father? What are you doing?! No! No, Father, don't hurt them! Don't you touch them!"

She felt dizzy. As if her body was not her own. She lost her footing, falling out of consciousness to the blood-curdling screams of her Little Sisters.

..

.

 **Rapture: Elizabeth**

.

The force of the tear being opened knocked the monster off its feet, the little girl it had been cornering scrambled away and disappeared into a sort of hole in the wall.

The tear started to close behind her as she ran for the girls. "Go!" she shouted over the now deafening sound of dripping water, "Follow her!"

The girls wasted no time getting out of there as the monster struggled to get back up.

Enraged at losing its prey, the monster charged at Elizabeth full-force, drill spinning faster than anything she had ever seen in her life. Yet she remained unafraid. The tear rippled beside her, slowly closing. _A world where he never existed._ Surely, Songbird could dispose of this… creature. Mind made up, she reopened the tear, and it swallowed the monster whole.

She stumbled backward, falling into a shallow puddle of water. A quick swipe over the sting in her cheek revealed a red smear. Minor compared to the fate waiting for her at the end of the drill.

"Hey, Miss!" a small voice called from the hole in the wall on the other side of the room.

Elizabeth stood, "What _was_ that thing?"

A little head poked out of the vent, "Mr. Bubbles… Big Daddy. He was grumpy. Angels don't like grumpy Daddies."

"A Big Daddy? You mean there's more of them?"

The girl nodded, yellow, pupil-less eyes glowing eerily. "Uh-huh. Mr. Bubbles always saves me."

Elizabeth wasn't getting it, but the girl seemed happy enough despite the near death experience. "My name's Elizabeth."

The girl giggled and pointed to something shiny in the mess of glass from the column. Elizabeth bent to pick it up, but when she turned back, the girl was gone.

"Hello? What is this thing? What am I supposed to-"

The box seemed to come to life in her hands, "Father!"

Elizabeth nearly dropped the radio. The voice was faint, but there all the same. It was another girl, but older than the others. Closer to herself, even.

"Father, STOP!"

"Hello?"

"Fath- Wait, who are you? Where is my father?!"

"That _thing_ was your father?" There was a pause so long, Elizabeth almost gave up waiting.

"No, I suppose not. At one time maybe, but… he's gone now."

The girl sounded sad in much the same way Elizabeth understood too well. She felt a pang of guilt for banishing the girl's father to a world where Songbird would kill him without a thought. But he _was_ a monster, what was she supposed to do?

"I'm Elizabeth," she tried.

"Tell me, Miss Elizabeth. The girls, are they safe? Did he hurt them?"

With the tear closed, she would have to find another one to get back home- that is, if there even was another one. She rounded a corner, startled as a large door lifted at her approach and revealed a long glass tunnel."No, they're fine. They went through a hole in the wall…" Her jaw dropped as it clicked in place where they could possibly be. "Just what is this place? We're… underwater? An underwater city!"

"This is Rapture… Or, what's left of it, rather."

She pressed her hands to the cool glass. "It's beautiful! I'll bet Paris has nothing on this."

The radio crackled, "You can't possibly think that."

Another door opened for Elizabeth, revealing what looked like an empty restaurant. She heard a faint whirring sound, not like a drill but-

Suddenly, she was bathed in red light as an alarm blared from every direction. The room seemed to leap to life.

"No! You've triggered an alarm! Get out of there!" the voice was frantic, "Elizabeth, RUN!"

..

.

 **Rapture: Eleanor**

.

Eleanor leaned heavily against the wall, trusting it to hold her up as she tried her best to guide Elizabeth to safety, or at the very least a clear place.

"Use your Plasmids until I can find you something."

"My _what?_ "

To be in Rapture now of all times without a drop of ADAM in your system… Miss Elizabeth was surely going to die if Eleanor didn't do _something._

"Never mind, there- there should be a Bot Shut-Off around the corner… Yes, right there. Pull the lever."

Eleanor could hear Elizabeth panting on the other end of the line. "Maybe next time a little warning. I'm not from around here if you couldn't tell."

Eleanor sunk to the floor, drained from trying to locate Elizabeth so fervently, "Where _did_ you come from?"

"It… It's a long story, but I-"

"You need to get out of here, it's not safe."

Elizabeth huffed and mumbled something that sounded a lot like: "I'll say."

..

.

 **Rapture: Elizabeth**

.

She stuck to the damp walls as she crept along, trusting the voice in the radio to guide her. This place, Rapture, as it were, seemed to be a hollow shell of what it must have once been. It was beyond anything Elizabeth had ever read about, dreamed about, but the more she saw of it, the more urgent it became that she find a tear, a way back to her tower, back to Columbia, the flying city.

As eroded as the place was becoming, thanks to all the water damage, she still noticed the place seemed to be littered with advertisements. Everything from a masquerade ball dated nearly ten years ago to something called Electro Bolt.

"What is this ADAM I keep hearing about?"

The radio wavered in and out of frequency. "They say it is the canvas of genetic modification. It changes you, allows for… alterations. It was, among other things, what truly separated us from the world above."

"Is that what you believe?"

"I- it doesn't matter. But Miss Elizabeth, _please_ , stay away from it. It will… complicate your departure."

Elizabeth clutched the radio to her side as she peered around the corner. "Alright, if you say so, Miss…"

"Eleanor. You can call me, Eleanor."

"Alright, _Eleanor_. Now, how do you propose I get out of here?"

..

.

 **Rapture: Eleanor**

.

She had managed to guide Elizabeth to a bathysphere but was at a loss of where to return her to. Her head throbbed from the act of staying with the girl for so long, keeping her from Mother, being her invisible eyes and ears, her Scout.

"How did you get here, Eleanor?"

"I've been here all my life."

"Have you been outside? You know, on the surface?"

Eleanor could help but smile at how ridiculous a thought that was. Elizabeth, in all her strange cheerfulness, couldn't possibly understand what it would take to get out of this place.

"No, I haven't."

"Well, maybe you will someday."

Now she could barely see Elizabeth. A thin haze was beginning to block her out, but she could just make out the random destination Elizabeth had chosen in her panic trying to escape the splicers chasing after her. They were arriving at the metro station.

Elizabeth gasped, "Right there."

"What?"

"A tear… My way back!"

"What is a tear?"

Elizabeth made some kind of dismissive gesture. "It's a doorway. A way out. A way back to Columbia."

Eleanor tried to see what Elizabeth could see, but it just seemed to be a normal train station, "Columbia? I don't-"

The air seemed to shimmer like heat waves and Elizabeth grasped something and ripped it open. It was as if in the middle of nothing, she had opened a curtain into another room. A small room with an easel and some paints and a half-finished picture of the Eiffel Tower.

"What… what is _that?_ What have you done?"

"It's a tear, see? My way back." Elizabeth took one step inside, but paused, looking at the radio in her hands. "What about you? It's safe there. I'm sure I could keep it open long enough. You could leave this place, too. I hear Columbia is just beautiful."

Eleanor sunk to the floor searching for a way to tell Elizabeth just how impossible all of this truly was.

"I can't… Father was my last chance. I am as much trapped here as you are not."

"But-"

"Go, Elizabeth. Before they find you. Don't worry about me. I will… I'll be alright. Get to safety."

"Hang on a second, El-"

Eleanor used what was left of her strength to push Elizabeth into the tear, to this Columbia, to safety. And the moment the girl passed through, the tear sealed violently behind her.

..

.

 **Columbia**

.

Elizabeth fell to the floor in her dining room. The rug was a different color, but the rest was unmistakable. She scrambled to her feet, spinning around to jump back through the tear and demand to know why Eleanor was trapped, who she was, why she couldn't escape, but the tear was gone, Rapture and Eleanor with it.

She huffed out a sigh and glanced at her painting in the corner of the room. _Of course_ , she was taken back to a version of Columbia where she had not yet finished it. She took another step closer to it, nearly ending up on the floor once again as her foot caught on something.

The radio skittered across the floor. Damn thing, like so many others, probably had no chance of working here in Columbia. Her only tie to Rapture, to Eleanor, severed. Something in that stung worse than the cut on her cheek.

She picked it up and dusted it off. "Eleanor? Are you there?"

There was no response.

That certainly would _not_ do.


	2. The Flying City

**Eleven Months Ago**

 **Rapture**

.

The treatments had slowed since Elizabeth's departure. Mother must have sensed she had given up on escape and decided to ease off in order to fall back in line with her calculations.

Eleanor had gained strength, but she couldn't see a reason to try again. It was too dangerous to involve the Little Sisters after what had happened with Father. She knew bringing a dead man back to life would have complications, but she never took into account his ADAM-starved hostile nature. He could have killed them all if not for-

If not for Elizabeth.

The girl who quite literally came out of nowhere and saved them all. The girl who could somehow rip open universes and make a Big Daddy disappear as if it had never existed at all. She thought about Elizabeth often. Her offer especially. A near stranger offering to take her from Rapture without even seeing her face or knowing anything about her.

She couldn't get the picture of Elizabeth- halfway in the tear, blue eyes wide but determined, dark red cut across her cheek. The ribbon in her hair had come undone and her dress was dirty and torn from scrapes with the splicers, but she was standing there, elegant and fearless, tear waving behind her. The world at her feet.

How much Eleanor wanted to follow, she would never admit to herself.

..

.

 **Columbia**

.

Elizabeth traced a finger over the small white scar on her cheek as she looked out over Columbia. She did not sing as she once would have. Instead, she plucked a rose from the balcony and did not flinch as a thorn punctured the pad of her thumb.

Her memories of Rapture were veiled in the haze of the tears, but she couldn't and would never forget the voice of the girl who saved her life. She could almost hear it in the back of her mind as she watched parts of Columbia shift to accommodate an airship.

It unsettled her how much she wanted to return to Rapture. How much she wanted to find Eleanor and _drag_ her through the tear! How much she wanted to-

She stepped away from the balcony and fell through the floor.

..

.

 **Rapture**

.

Eleanor had been rearranging her old school books in her bookshelf when the ceiling decided to explode, or at least, that is what it seemed as she was no longer looking at her own ceiling at all, but instead at one much grander and higher up. All around she could see sturdy bookshelves lining the walls and was that... sunlight?

She abandoned her own modest shelf and climbed on top of her bed to get a better look. It was blurry and hard to make out, but once her eyes adjusted, she nearly toppled over.

"Elizabeth?"

The girl was standing with her back to Eleanor but higher up as if Eleanor were looking up at her through the floor. She didn't seem to hear her either.

"It's me, it's Eleanor!"

Elizabeth turned, and, really, all Eleanor could do was watch as she walked herself off a cliff.

..

.

 **Rapture: Elizabeth**

.

Falling through the floor was… new.

Elizabeth coughed and winced as she peeled herself off the concrete floor that seemed to have caught her. She started to stand slowly and tensed when she felt hands on her upper arms pulling her gently to her feet.

"Are you alright?"

Jarred as she was from the drop, Elizabeth would recognize that voice in a thousand cities, in any dimension.

"It's _you_."

Eleanor nodded just once before Elizabeth clung to her thin frame, hugging her like a magnet. "I can't believe I'm here. I… I was just thinking of you and now I'm here. _With_ you!"

She let go of Eleanor and spun around, taking in the room. It was a bit on the childish side with the stuffed animals and pink rug, but it was _Eleanor's,_ and she loved it.

Finished, she sat down on Eleanor's bed and smiled at the girl in the simple white dress standing nervously near the large window overlooking Rapture.

"You're taller than I imagined."

Eleanor smiled at that for a moment before glancing away at something. "Elizabeth… It's not safe for you-"

"Stop that," Elizabeth said, crossing her arms. "I can take care of myself."

Eleanor sighed but didn't argue. Instead, she took a seat on the floor. "At least get down. I don't want her to see you."

..

.

 **Rapture: Eleanor**

.

As it turned out, when it came to Elizabeth, _where are you from?_ was certainly _the_ question to ask. Slight with her hesitation, it didn't take much to get her talking. The girl had lived all her life in a floating tower in the clouds with nothing but a giant metal bird to look after her. If not for her own specific circumstances, Eleanor might have laughed at the idea.

They sat beside each other on the floor behind Eleanor's bed, shoulders touching. Elizabeth moved her hands with her words as if to add emphasis where none was truly needed. "I have everything I could ever need," Elizabeth continued, "but…"

"You want to see the world," she supplied. If anyone out there could possibly understand Elizabeth, it was Eleanor Lamb. It seemed whether the girl was stuck in the sky or beneath the sea, the feelings were the same.

"What about those tears of yours? You came here."

Elizabeth looked down at her hands."The tears are unpredictable at best. I never know what lies on the other side. Even a world with just one thing changed can be devastating."

"So it's sort of random?"

She nodded, but stopped short, "Yes, but I remember when I was younger… I could do more than just open them… I could create them. I could go wherever I wanted… but I always wanted to go back. I can't do that anymore, believe me, I've tried."

Eleanor nodded at that, not knowing what else to do. Elizabeth's power was beyond Rapture, beyond ADAM. She doubted there was a plasmid out there that could open doors between worlds.

The thimble on Elizabeth's pinky reflected the red glow of the light above the door. Eleanor felt her eyes drawn to it before she could think better of it.

Elizabeth nudged her gently, and Eleanor flushed. "If you want to ask me, ask me." Eleanor opened her mouth and closed it. She was floundering, but Elizabeth was graceful enough for the both of them. "It's alright. It's as much a mystery to me as anyone else… Maybe Songbird knows, but he's not talking."

As if on cue, a strange song started to chime softly from the city above. Eleanor looked up at the ceiling, at the moonlight streaming through the windows in Columbia. Elizabeth followed her eyes and sighed heavily, seeming to hear the music as well, "Speaking of… He's coming. I have to get back."

Just hearing the words formed something heavy in Eleanor's stomach, and it wasn't the ADAM slug.

Elizabeth got to her feet and brushed off her skirt. Eleanor had grown up in a world of splicers and men fused into protector suits, of little girls with glowing eyes and near-translucent skin. Elizabeth was none of these things. She was _cheerful_ and so smart. There was no ADAM to ruin her in the ways Eleanor was so accustomed to.

"I-"

"Give me a boost, would ya?" she asked, climbing up onto the bed. When Eleanor didn't move from the floor, Elizabeth crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "Hey, this is _not_ goodbye, Eleanor."

Eleanor stood, unconvinced. "You said the tears were unpredictable. We may never see each other again. Doesn't that make you- Aren't you worried at all?"

Elizabeth reached out tentatively as if unsure of her own movements, but gained confidence quickly as her palm rested gently against Eleanor's cheek. Her eyes were filled with something so strong, Eleanor simply _had_ to look away.

"You're all I've got, you know. I'll find a way, I promise."

..

.

 **Nine Months Ago**

 **Columbia**

.

And Elizabeth did, in fact, find a way.

She returned to Rapture only four weeks after her last departure and then again another week later. Every tear was a fight with some invisible force. Each time she thought she had the right one, it would close on her and vanish, but she was determined. It drained her to no end, but she never stopped trying. She _couldn't_. Eleanor was…

Eleanor was trapped there. A single room to live her life in. Splicers to deliver her food and escort her to her mother. And Elizabeth was not blind to the effects of _whatever_ it was Eleanor's mother was doing to her. While Eleanor was always glad to see her, recently she had grown agitated and jittery during their visits, unable to keep herself in one place, always fretting about her mother catching them, saying things like: "She'll hurt you. No- No, she'll _kill_ you, Elizabeth. She won't think twice."

And all Elizabeth could think to do to calm her was to reopen the tear and make sure Eleanor watched as she crossed back to safety.

Today, she hoped, would be different. It _had_ to be. She couldn't lose Eleanor. Not like this.

Elizabeth leaped through her newest tear, trusting Eleanor to be waiting for her on the other side. Entering a room through a rip in the space-time continuum as she did wasn't exactly unannounced. Eleanor had once told her it was about as subtle as a brick. But none of that mattered as Elizabeth landed in Rapture, already leaning into Eleanor's embrace, forehead pressed to her collarbone. Eleanor's white dress was stiff under her touch. "Sorry I took so long."

Eleanor made a low humming noise and shifted to look at the door on the other side of the room. It remained locked as always, red light glowing above it to signify she was present.

"Elizabeth," she whispered, "take me to Columbia."

..

.

 **Columbia: Eleanor**

.

Elizabeth led the way like she was born for the task, head-on in the way Eleanor had come to expect from her. Crossing through the tear set Eleanor's nerves on fire. She squeezed Elizabeth's hand tightly in both her own the moment she stepped into a ray of sunlight. She felt warm like she could stand there forever despite the pain behind her eyes from so much _light_. It seemed to be coming from everywhere.

"C'mon. You haven't seen anything yet!" Elizabeth said, pulling Eleanor along by their tethered hands, taking the stairs two at a time to the top.

The girl took a sharp left and disappeared when Eleanor stopped to catch her breath.

"Eleanor?"

"I think I'm lost," she called out, looking into another dark room.

"This way!"

Eleanor smiled to herself and followed the voice.

..

She found Elizabeth on a small balcony decorated with roses that had probably seen better days. Elizabeth had one in her hands when Eleanor approached.

She laughed quietly, then cleared her throat. "I guess I got a little careless."

"Doesn't sound like you."

"Well," she said, dropping the rose back into the planter, "I've been a little busy."

 _Looking for me?_ Eleanor would have said if she had not been so transfixed on the sight of Elizabeth leaning slightly over the ledge, breeze moving her dark hair, backdropped by a floating city no less.

She swallowed, nervous as always. For all she knew of Elizabeth, the world-bending powers, Monument Island, Songbird; she had confessed little of her own, and it was becoming clear to her that she was running out of time.

She moved beside Elizabeth and rested her elbows on the warm stone railing. The sun was sinking in the sky, touching the tops of the floating buildings.

"When I was-" she started slowly, shifting with the uncertainty of it. She trailed off, lost, but Elizabeth met her eyes and gave a reassuring smile. She clasped Eleanor's hands in her own. "When I was younger, Mother was arrested, and I- well, after some time with a guardian, I was stolen and sold to an orphanage."

Elizabeth's eyes widened. She ducked her head into Eleanor's shoulder and squeezed her fingers.

"In Rapture, children are not what they seem. They are a tool to produce and reclaim ADAM. Those girls you saved… I was like them once. Father, he protected me until… Until Mother returned for me. She killed Father and cast him away. She was so _angry_ at what had been done to me. She did everything in her power to bring me back, but I couldn't be fully rehabilitated."

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth whispered.

"I don't fully understand it myself, but I am still like them… I can _smell_ the ADAM moving around Rapture, I can feel it _inside_ me. It makes me sick… Mother says it's a gift, that I'm some kind of bloody messiah for the future of the Rapture Family. The only time I can get it out of my head, even for a second, is when… when you're with me."

The admission left her vulnerable, warm with embarrassment, but there was no need. Elizabeth hugged her tightly as the sun sunk beneath the city to set for the world below.

..

.

 **Seven Months Ago**

 **Rapture**

.

"My child, why do you fight it? You have the potential… You simply lack the will."

Eleanor shot a hard look at the mirror, behind which she knew Mother stood speaking into the intercom. She would _not_ allow Mother to force her into this… this _prophecy_ she dreamed up.

"Very well. Something can be done of this yet."

Eleanor sat heavily on her bed. She was running out of time.

..

 **Six Months Ago**

 **Columbia: Eleanor**

.

She had been half-asleep when the tear appeared in place of the large ocean view window. Her body ached as she sat up. She felt weak, hopeless, _infested._ No doubt Mother's handiwork. What was it this time? A sedative?

Eleanor shook herself and stood. She waited for a beat, checking over her shoulder, before passing through into Elizabeth's bedroom.

It was much larger than her own, but plain apart from the various Paris posters and stacks of books. Elizabeth herself was sitting on her bed, hair shiny and loose around her shoulders. The book in her lap fell to the floor as she rose to greet her.

Together, they walked toward the library. Admittedly, it was Eleanor's favorite room in Elizabeth's tower. It was always bright and cool. They would sit together on the rug, and Eleanor would talk until she had no idea what she was saying because the world had grown so much since 1912, and Elizabeth usually had no end of questions.

But today she was quiet, thoughtful. She traced her index finger along the spine of her book, off somewhere far away.

"Are you alright?" Eleanor asked finally. She lifted the corner of Elizabeth's book to see the cover and nearly gasped. "Where did you get that?"

"I- I'm sorry." Elizabeth gave her the book. Her cheeks were red, flustered. "I took it from your room last time. I wanted to know about… you."

Eleanor swiped her thumb over the faded title: _Fontaine Plasmids._ Mother had taught her much of Rapture's history with ADAM and what could come from it. The amazing genetic modifications that pushed them eons ahead of the surface world. It was to be her future, after all.

But nothing Elizabeth could learn from any book would begin to describe Eleanor and what she was now, what she would be if Mother succeeded without killing her.

"It's alright," Eleanor said slowly, sincerely. How she understood the curiosity. "Here, you keep it. I don't need it anymore."

Elizabeth smiled. "Oh, thank you!" She bit her lip, as if still unsatisfied with herself. "I really _am_ sorry. I should have asked you."

Eleanor didn't know what to say. No one had ever apologized to her for something so small or maybe for anything at all, she wasn't sure anymore. "Well, I will tell you anything you want to know."

True to form, Elizabeth lit up. "Can you _really_ move things with your mind?"

..

Elizabeth laughed and spun with the swirl of books that moved with just a thought from Eleanor's head. Eleanor felt dizzy at the sight of her.

"Eleanor! It's- It's like magic!"

She had spent her childhood searching for angels. How was she supposed to know she would find one locked away in a tower in the sky?

..

.

 **Columbia: Elizabeth**

.

Her cheeks hurt from smiling and she was willing to bet Eleanor felt the same way. She really did have a beautiful smile.

"What does it feel like? ADAM, I mean," she asked, linking her fingers through Eleanor's as she returned the last of the books to the shelf. Eleanor stilled, and Elizabeth suddenly felt the shock of what she had asked. "Sorry, I didn't… Sorry."

Eleanor nodded once before dropping her eyes to the ground. "Back when I told you to stay away from it? I _meant_ it because it always ends the same way. It _ruins_ people, Elizabeth. I shouldn't have pretended it was any different."

"Okay," she said softly as Eleanor leaned heavily against the wall as if she didn't mean to. Elizabeth helped her to the floor and sat in front of her, hands on Eleanor's knees.

"Mother- she believes I can be 'perfected' with ADAM. She wishes for me to continue her work, but I won't be _me_. I'll be her glorified science experiment. Because of this- because of ADAM, my life doesn't belong to me."

Elizabeth was lost for words, for senses, for _everything_. Eleanor was all she ever thought about. She couldn't go five minutes without searching for the next tear. She _needed_ to be where Eleanor was, wherever that may be. It never occurred to her that one day, no matter how hard she looked, she may never find _her_ again. She felt a sharp ache in her sternum. It was almost enough to take her breath away.

"You're all I have, too." Eleanor looked up, hair in her face, eyes glistening. "She's going to take you from me just like everything else."

"Then don't go back," Elizabeth said gently, gently, gently. "You're safe here. We can-"

She shook her head. "I _can't_. You don't understand."

Elizabeth pushed the hair from Eleanor's eyes. Her fingertips lingered, soft and slight on her cheeks. "Then explain it to me."

"I _have_ to protect them. If I don't return, Mother- she will… she'll kill them. She'll harvest their ADAM and start over."

Elizabeth wanted to be selfish. She wanted to refuse to open the tear to send her back to that awful place, but that would mean sacrificing the lives of the Little Sisters, innocent _children_ caught in the wrong place. In any world, she couldn't even begin to consider it.

There had to be another way.


	3. No Gods or Kings

**Present Time**

 **Rapture: Elizabeth**

.

The splicers were closing in, it was only a matter of time. She'd triggered an alarm foolishly while trying to hack a Circus of Values. And as unstable as her tears were becoming lately, she feared there was only one way out of this. Eleanor had warned her of the costs, demanded for her well-being that she avoid it, but she was running out of time. She was out of her depth, but losing Eleanor was not an option.

Elizabeth dug through her pack, blood pounding in her ears, alarm blaring, loudly, deafeningly. Nowhere to run. She grasped the glass syringe and swallowed, stomach turning at the thick red material inside. She didn't have another choice.

She curled her fingers and jammed the needle into her wrist.

..

 **Two Nights Ago**

 **Columbia**

..

Elizabeth added yet another book to the growing stack perched precariously at the edge of her desk. Growing up in a tower led her to become somewhat of a voracious reader, though there was never a reason apart from a way to pass the time.

She didn't know what else to do. She hadn't seen Eleanor in months, and each time she tried to open a tear, something always seemed to go wrong and she'd get knocked off her feet, breathless and coughing and weak. It was as if she simply couldn't find Eleanor. As if one or both of them lacked the strength.

How quickly Eleanor had slipped from her. She had gone from sneaking into her room almost every other day to…. This? Now, what was she to do? Continue to burn away the days in the tower knowing Eleanor was out there and just out of her grasp? She couldn't let herself think about it, but nothing in any of her books took her mind away from the girl. Not _The Principles of Quantum Mechanics_ , not _Lock Picking & the Art of Subterfuge_, nothing.

Simply put, Elizabeth _missed_ Eleanor quite acutely. Desperately so.

So when the dust-coated radio tucked away in her bookshelf crackled and came to life behind her, she filed it away as mere wishful thinking. The thing didn't even work!

But when the noise didn't stop, she got up to investigate. Once she got the thing in her hands, the static fluctuated horribly. The connection was weak, but it seemed to be working.

"-zibeth! Elizabeth. Are you th-"

Elizabeth fell back against the bookshelf. She had waited so long. "I'm here," she shouted over the static, unsure just how the device was working.

"Please, come quickly... I-I'm trapped in a cage… something's wrong!"

The radio crackled once more then fell silent in her hands, lifeless.

..

.

 **Rapture**

.

"It's been what? Five, six months? Eleanor, you're better than this. You cannot possibly believe she is coming to 'rescue' you."

Eleanor turned away from the Mother's monitors defiantly. They had been playing the same recording along with various clips from Mother's speeches on a loop since she had woken up in this… cell.

It was beyond a miracle she was even able to reach Elizabeth. Mother had been giving her such heavy doses of sedatives, lucidity was so rare to her. She wasn't even sure how much time had passed. But she _felt_ it, the ADAM in her mind. She almost felt like she had someone else's thoughts inside her own head, and it _ached_.

Elizabeth _was_ coming for her. She could feel that, as real as the blood in her veins.

..

.

 **Rapture: Elizabeth**

.

Elizabeth forced the wisp of a tear open with all her might, willing, praying, begging it not to detonate on her like so many had before, and by some kind of dumb luck it actually worked. It was small. She had to force herself through, and when she made it, she nearly collapsed from the effort of it all. She leaned heavily against the wall of Eleanor's room. She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek to the cool window.

She didn't see the figure rising from the bed halfway silhouetted against the flashing red light on the far wall.

"I have done all I can," a stiff voice began, "and this is how she chooses to repay me."

Elizabeth backed away from the woman who towered over her in more ways than one. Her blood ran cold. The clinical gaze and hardened eyes. She knew who this was.

"The girl from the _sky_ ," Lamb said bitterly. "What could you possibly know of this place to make you so willing to tear it down? Eleanor is through with you, child. She is _my_ daughter, _my_ life's work, and you will not stand in the way."

Lamb grabbed her harshly by the arm. She felt a sharp pinch in her neck before the woman shoved her back through the tear.

..

 **Ten Hours Later**

 **Columbia**

.

Elizabeth blinked a few times and tried to sit up. Her head was throbbing and her muscles ached. She was back in her library, sprawled out on the floor, and judging from the strength of the sunlight, it was around noon.

She stood slowly feeling dizzy, feeling sick. She worked so hard for that tear, only to get thrown right back by a preachy, self-righteous _tyrant_. She wanted to cry or scream or _something_ because Eleanor was still trapped down there, forced into her mother's experiments, and Elizabeth was her only hope.

Something filled her then, white-hot and _angry._ She didn't need to find a tear, not this time. The ground quaked beneath her, glass shattered. She could hear Songbird screeching in the distance, coming for her. Rage surged through her.

The world ripped apart at her hands, wavering and bending with instability. Elizabeth squared her shoulders and stepped through. She did not look back. There was nothing left for her there.

..

 **Present Time**

 **Rapture: Elizabeth**

.

"You will die down here, child."

Elizabeth sprinted around the corner, trailed by two pipe-wielding thuggish splicers. Lamb had armies coming after her. She couldn't keep this up much longer.

She tore through doorways, shoving debris out of her way wildly, but she didn't know where she was going, and eventually, the strung-out splicers herded her to a dead end.

"You comin' to laugh at me, too?" the one on the left muttered as she backed against the wall.

She thrust her hands out in front of her, spiked with shards of ice. It was still jarring, the feeling of the frost shooting from her palms. The splicers froze mid-swing. Elizabeth wasted no time prying a lead pipe from one of them. She swung with all her strength, shattering the splicers like glass into hundreds of bloody pieces.

She tossed the pipe aside and kept moving, uncapping a fresh EVE-hypo as she ran. How quickly she had learned down here that mercy was something that got you killed.

Elizabeth nearly crashed into a wall as a bright light tinged with red seemed to cloud her vision.

"Come to Persephone. Oh, god Elizabeth, it hurts."

..

.

 **Rapture: Eleanor**

.

"... by force or guile, he makes it so. To the tyrant, the whole of creation is held in the relative- the sun and moon revolve for him alone."

Elizabeth was close, Eleanor could feel it in her chest. Mother would try to stop her, and so far Eleanor had helped Elizabeth the best she could by having the girls smuggle out health kits and money. It wasn't enough, she knew, but Elizabeth was smart. She would find a way.

Eleanor could no longer move, but she didn't have to look to know Mother had entered the quarantine chamber. She could smell the cigarette smoke as Mother sat in the chair beside her bed, waiting.

Eleanor's eyes fell shut.

..

.

 **Rapture: Elizabeth**

.

Elizabeth rode the elevator from Lamb's hideout down to Outer Persephone. The Little Sisters had helped point her in the right direction, but now she knew she was on her own.

The elevator let her out in front of the entrance to Persephone Detention Facility. The lobby office was long abandoned and nearly picked clean, and the long glass tunnel hallway leaked salt water on her head and shoulders as she ran toward the Control Room.

The doors slid open slowly, but she didn't wait. She shot into the room, breathing hard. She could see the quarantine area straight ahead. Eleanor was so _close_ , she could feel it plain as the heart in her chest.

Elizabeth rushed to the glass door and nearly cried out at the sight of her. She looked to her left at the door control box and threw the switch. "Eleanor!" she shouted, knocking on the glass, but the girl was sleeping fitfully and couldn't hear her.

Lamb's voice came through the radio attached to her pack. "How will she remember you after this moment, child? The trail of blood you've tracked in here? What will she say when she smells the ADAM on you?"

She looked down at her hands, their icy foreignness. She felt ashamed, but without the plasmid, she would have died long ago.

"I've placed my pieces on the board, as expected- as have you. Is this what she hoped for?" The radio popped unexpectedly. "Goodbye, Elizabeth, and take heart, you have proved me wrong thus far… but no longer."

The radio cut out along with most of the lights. Shrill, metallic cries filled the room as two figures dropped from the ceiling. Elizabeth recognized them from Eleanor's stories. Grown up Little Sisters, ruthless and aggressive.

She willed them not to see her.

..

Elizabeth hid beneath a set of stairs, exhausted and completely out of EVE. Not that freezing the Big Sisters seemed to do anything but slow them down a bit. What was she supposed to do? Beat them to death with a lead pipe before they got to her with their drills and fireballs?

It was only a matter of time before they discovered her hiding place. She took one last glance through the gaps between the stairs. If this plan didn't work, she would die down here just as Lamb designed.

She slipped out of her hiding place just in time to dodge a chunk of stone pillar one of the Sisters had thrown at her. She rounded the room, desperately clawing her way toward the pool of water in the right wing. She scrambled up the steps just as the Sisters dropped down from the walls. They splashed in the water gaining on her.

..

Elizabeth bent at the waist and put her hands on her knees. The thick smoke made her cough twice, but she recovered quickly, the deadly aftermath behind her growing quiet. The Sisters were trapped in the pool of water with by the thick electrical bolts of a Tesla Coil. Their bodies fell limp as she closed the tear, returning the coil to… a world where it was there in the first place.

She limped into the entrance of the quarantine chamber. The outer door closed behind her followed by a hissing sound as the seal started to break. Some kind of mist filled the small room for a few seconds.

"So you survive, child."

The mist started to clear, and Elizabeth could just make out Sofia Lamb sitting in a chair beside Eleanor's bed.

"Fifty seconds remaining," the robotic voice chirped, announcing the time left until the seal was broken.

"This may come as a surprise, Elizabeth, but I have always known about you. You were never a secret kept only by Eleanor. I have tracked your movements ever since the day you killed Subject Delta, and Eleanor has done just the same, exalting your every act as gospel."

Smoke billowed out of Lamb's mouth. She shook her head. "You don't care about the Rapture Family, you would sooner see it die than contribute even the small amount of ADAM in your veins, and Eleanor feels the same. The girl lying on that bed is no longer my child, nor my life's work. She is a monster, shaped by you alone. Just as she wanted."

"Twenty seconds remaining."

Lamb tossed her cigarette aside and stood. "You are an obstacle, a disease threatening to take the Family, just like you have taken Eleanor. There is only one cure. Eleanor… forgive me." The woman took the pillow from beneath Eleanor's head and held it forcefully over the girl's face.

Eleanor struggled, her legs kicking wildly as Elizabeth pounded on the door with both fists, screaming. Her heart was beating too quickly, she couldn't breathe, couldn't see. The door lifted slowly, and Elizabeth fell to her knees reaching for Eleanor.

Elizabeth collapsed on the rug. She couldn't hear anything, the world spun and spun. The last thing she saw was Eleanor's limp body falling to the floor beside her.

..

.

 **Eight Hours Later**

 **Rapture: Eleanor**

.

Eleanor couldn't move or open her eyes, but she could still contact the Little Sisters, even in this near-comatose state. Relief flooded her as she felt that little tug in her chest signifying that Elizabeth was still near. Mother had not killed her. At least not yet.

There was still time.

..

 **Five Hours Later**

 **Rapture: Elizabeth**

.

Elizabeth followed the Little Sister closely, keeping guard as the child climbed through vents, stuck corpses with her needle, and collected pieces of a Big Sister suit. The girl cheered for her as she froze splicers as they tried to attack the Sister.

"Unzip him, Miss Elizabeth!" the girl laughed, "X his eyes out!"

Elizabeth ushered the girl along, pushing her away from the bodies that seemed to keep piling up around them.

"What Mother did to me left me very weak, or I would do this part myself… To get us out of here, I need to become like them, the Big Sisters."

Lamb had confiscated her radio and her pack, but somehow Eleanor still managed to contact her. She suspected they never needed the radio anyway because Eleanor was speaking inside her mind, clear as day.

"I know it doesn't make sense to you, but please… I'm so sorry I got you into this… The Little Sister will guide you. Keep her safe, Elizabeth."

The little girl tugged her hand, "C'mon, Miss Elizabeth. Clear as rainbows. Time to find the angels!"

..

Elizabeth ran back to the quarantine chamber with the parts of the suit under her arms and the Little Sister clinging happily to her back.

"Almost home now, Miss Elizabeth." The doors slid up as she approached, and once she was inside the room, the Little Sister dropped off her shoulders and ran for the nearest vent.

Eleanor was lying there just as she had been the last time, before Dr. Lamb smothered her, nearly taking her life.

"Eleanor?"

The girl's eyes opened halfway, a hint of a smile on her lips. "Hi."

Elizabeth dropped the suit parts on the floor and hugged Eleanor tightly. It had been so long, she had to fight so hard and even watch her almost die to get here. She felt Eleanor's arms return the hug slowly.

"I missed you," Elizabeth said as she sat up, wiping a hand across her eyes. "I'm glad you're not dead."

Eleanor smiled, "Me too." She started to sit up, "Did you get it?"

Elizabeth nodded and held up the parts of the suit. She set them down on the bed and helped Eleanor sit up. She looked so drained, hollow, weak.

"I knew you'd find it. Here, help me put this on."

It was strange, this Big Sister thing. The more she put on, the more Elizabeth realized how much Eleanor already resembled one even without the suit. Rail thin and tall, really, the only thing she was missing was the insatiable bloodlust.

Elizabeth was reaching for the helmet when Eleanor gasped.

"What's wrong?" Elizabeth asked, checking behind her, "Eleanor."

"Y-your hands. Oh, no." Eleanor grasped her hands. The spikes had been knocked off in combat, but they were still freezing and radiating a small cloud of frost.

Elizabeth pulled her hands back and folded them tightly in her lap. "I-I'm sorry. I… I was so _scared_ , I didn't know what else to do."

"No… Hey," Eleanor touched her shoulder with her own, "it's not your fault. I should have- It kept you safe. That's all that matters."

Elizabeth rested her head on Eleanor's shoulder. She looked out at the splicers starting to trickle into the next room."This is a mess, isn't it?"

Eleanor hummed in affirmation and pressed her lips to Elizabeth's forehead. "Let's get out of here."

..

.

 **Rapture: Eleanor**

.

Mother was going to send Rapture into the trenches, flood them with the Family, and kill everyone in one fell swoop, but together she and Elizabeth were an army. Elizabeth with her tears, and Eleanor with the abilities she had gained from the ADAM over the years. They made quick work disposing of the waves Mother sent after them. And even when she tried to sabotage the lifeboat, they pressed on.

They rescued the sisters from the pediatric ward, taking out Alpha Series and Elite Brute Splicers with the help of the objects Elizabeth could pull into the world. They tore through Rapture's halls trailed by about a dozen Little Sisters, and anything that stood in their way didn't live to tell the tale.

Eleanor and the Sisters boiled away the water as Elizabeth stood guard, fighting off the horde. And when the room began to flood, Eleanor grabbed Elizabeth in her arms and boosted her into the lifeboat with the Sisters.

"Wait, where are you going?" Elizabeth curled her fingers around the metal netting of her helmet.

"Don't worry. I'm right behind you."

If Mother lived for her precious Family, then she would die with them too. And when the bombs detonated, and Rapture began to fall apart, Eleanor disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.


	4. An Ending

**Present Time**

 **The Surface: Elizabeth**

.

Elizabeth pried the door open, letting the sun into the hold. One by one, she helped the girls onto the metal deck. She sat with some of them at the edge, feet in the water. Others were splashing and chasing each other, excited to see the sun.

She gazed out across the water and wrapped her arms tightly around herself against the sea breeze. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something in the water and nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand shot up and grabbed the ledge.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the theatrics but reached to pull her up anyway. The sky was bright blue and the girls were singing. All could be forgiven.

Eleanor reached up to pop off her helmet off and took just enough time to put it down before she threaded her fingers through Elizabeth's hair and kissed her.

Taken by surprise as she was, Elizabeth kissed her back, lips soft and eager. She pulled back for a moment only to nod toward the water and whisper, "Nothing like that."

Eleanor squeezed her hands and smiled in the sunshine. "Never again," she agreed.

And later, Eleanor started the engine, and they sailed east toward coordinates Elizabeth knew by heart.

They were free, at last.


End file.
